BIO 200LLB Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: August Weismann, Agriculture In The Soviet Union, Paul Kammerer

• School: University at Buffalo
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIO 200LLB
• Professor: Herreid, C F

Document Summary

At the time of darwin"s death in 1882 at the age of 73 most biologists were convinced. How does evolution work that evolution had occurred but the mechanism of evolution was uncertain. The french biologist lamarck argued that characteristics acquired during the lifetime of an organism could be passed on to its offspring= Lamarck"s view: evolution by acquired characteristics, use and disuse. How did the giraffe"s neck get so long. Darwin argument was that a giraffe"s ancestors had variable neck lengths and the ones with the longest neck had a selective advantage. And they were the ones that were most likely to leave offspring behind. So the average giraffe neck progressively grew longer over time because the ones with the longest necks in a given generation were always at an advantage. Both lamarck and darwin had a problem. How could they explain why a trait appears.